


Full Gambit

by crna_macka



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-12 00:25:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7076899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crna_macka/pseuds/crna_macka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby has the best shot at acquiring a pressure regulator. Raven has the best shot at fixing the ship. Murphy's Law still happens, albeit in a different way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Full Gambit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evandre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evandre/gifts), [madcowmama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/madcowmama/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Gambit](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3339002) by [crna_macka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crna_macka/pseuds/crna_macka). 



> For evandre and madcowmama, and all my tumblr mutuals who deserve better than this Bloody 16. Here's story of how Abby and Raven make it to the ground together.
> 
> As always, thanks to Beagles who got the ball rolling and smoothed some rough edges.

“How soon can you get this thing ready to drop?”

Abby sweeps into their little corner of Mecha at a time when Raven knows she should be monitoring the kids on the ground, as the woman does between her shifts in medical. Still, Raven thinks nothing of it. Status report. The usual.

“I’m still scraping up parts to fabricate a pressure regulator. We’ve got two more days, right?”

Like most people used to being in charge, Abby tries to push her luck. “Can we launch without that part?”

“We could launch, but we’ll be dead before we get to the ground. And I mean bad dead. Ruptured lungs, air bubbles in the brain,” Raven explains, trying to drive her point home by speaking to Abby’s profession. “We need that part. Why, what’s wrong? Did something change?”

There is silence for a moment, and stillness behind her.

“Clarke’s wristband signal went out.”

 _That_ gets Raven’s full attention. She leaves her work, and Abby turns to face her. The woman isn’t easy to read, but Raven is starting to trust her growing instincts for what Abby automatically hides. So she knows she needs to try to reassure now. “That doesn’t mean anything, right? She took it off like the rest of them.”

Abby breaks eye contact and takes a breath. Nods. Logically, they both know that could be the case. Likely is the case. Emotionally, she’s not convinced; she wouldn’t be in Mecha right now if she _could_ be convinced.

This isn’t just a work order, Raven reminds herself. This is life or death. She starts to nod, her brain racing through their limited options as she puts her body in motion. There is always another way. “Okay. I can get a pressure regulator. Today.”

“How?”

“The less you know, the better.”

She almost makes it to the door before Abby catches her by the arm. “Raven, wait. I can get the part. You can keep working.”

Raven doesn’t shrug off the grip, but it slips away as she searches Abby’s face, gauging their chances. The Ark’s councillors are the upper echelon; Abby could probably legitimately get anything she wanted and have it back here before anyone started asking questions. Raven’s options are just one, really. The only person any lowly grunt in Mecha can go to for “regulated goods” is Nygel, who never does a favor for free. They would lose precious time if Raven had to negotiate a price, and they would lose out completely if she failed.

Abby is right. It makes sense for her to handle acquisition at this point.

“Okay,” Raven agrees. “A pressure regulator. That’s all we need.”

* * *

Raven isn’t expecting Abby to return this close to her next shift in medical, pressure regulator or no. But there she is - there _it_ is, the twin gauges and brassy base in the palm of the woman’s hand.

“How did you...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Abby says, all business. “How fast can you install it?”

Calculating but still confused, Raven considers the impossible-to-get part that’s now in her possession. Not needing to be cobbled together from scraps. “I don’t know. A few hours maybe?”

Abby’s expression is tight with fear and worry, but it’s easy to see she’s still determined. Everything she’s got coiled inside just twists tighter. “We might not have that much time.”

Raven’s mind makes the connection just as Abby is turning to go. “What did it cost you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Abby starts to reiterate, but Raven is already jerking herself up out of the pod.

“The adjustment handle - It matters if you paid asking price and still got stiffed.” She’s angry now, frustrated at the run-around and delay, almost certain the councillor did _not_ go through proper channels to get the part. “Nygel, right?”

Abby doesn’t quite hesitate. Her mouth forms a grim line and Raven snatches up her jacket so she isn’t storming the corridors with a fistful of stolen metal.

* * *

“It’s not meal time yet.”

The guard in the cafeteria is too slow to stop Raven from coming through the door, but he does block her from going any further once she’s in. She’s had time to cool down a little on her way here, which goes a long way toward keeping a growl out of her voice.

“I’m not hungry. I’m here to complain to the manager.”

“Well, well, well,” an old, familiar voice sings across the room. “How long has it been, Little Bird?”

“Save it, Nygel. Since when do you rip off paying customers?”

The woman drops the friendly, welcoming facade and looks Raven over more carefully now. She’s smart enough to do the math when Raven reveals the faulty regulator and seems, maybe, at least slightly impressed. “It looks like I’ve been underestimating you, Little Bird. How does a girl like you get such high-ranking connections?”

“By not cheating them out of what they paid for. Either give me a new pressure regulator or - ”

“I’m afraid your benefactor paid less than the going rate.”

Raven narrows her eyes. She didn’t come here to play cat and mouse. “Miscommunication. Abby misunderstood the terms. Just tell me what it’s going to take.”

Nygel cants her head, looking no less predatory despite Raven’s intentions. “I owe a favor to the chief of electrical. And he’s got a thing for tough, pretty girls like you.”

Raven’s mind flashes right to her mother. To her childhood...

“You’re joking, right?”

“I never joke about business.”

...To Finn. To Abby.

“I can’t do that,” Raven says, blunt and honest. Nygel knows exactly how steep that price is. _Exactly._ Not just steep, but impossible. Raven would die before making that trade. Before bartering with her body. And if what Abby said about the oxygen is true, maybe Raven will. Maybe they all will.

"Oh. Ohhh, I see. I see how it is. Little Bird found herself a nice nest.” Nygel’s low, building chuckle breaks Raven’s reverie. She flicks her fingers through the air, and her goon goes to the kitchen where she keeps some of what’s in store.

Raven blinks and shifts her weight back, glancing from the door to Nygel in suspicious disbelief.

“I've got a soft spot for romance, Little Bird.” The woman shrugs and spreads her hands in a gesture that would seem helpless, were she anyone else. Anyone other than _the_ most cunning criminal on the Ark. “But also, have your girlfriend bring me another round of morphine. Same as before. Call it even."

Raven is too stunned to argue fine details. Abby gave Nygel morphine. Nygel didn’t push Raven in negotiations. They’re going to get the product before final payment.

There’s no room on her wildly blinking radar for anything more.

* * *

It’s not until Raven is trying to focus on installing the pressure regulator against a ticking clock that the conversation with Nygel starts replaying in her head. The sound of boots against metal and the constant movement in the corner of her eye don’t help drown it out. _Your girlfriend_ , Nygel had said so casually, and the wrench slips, sending Raven’s knuckles scraping over the rough guts of the pod.

“Abby, how about I pace in the operating room next time you're working?” she finally chides, wiping her forehead on her arm as she mentally tries to do the same to distracting thoughts.

The doctor’s communicator interrupts any response Abby might make, and Jackson’s voice sounds frantically from the pad’s small speaker. “Abby, did you take morphine from the clinic?”

Raven spins in time to see the woman flinch.

“They inventoried already?”

“No,” the man says. “Kane was just here. He’s on his way to Mecha to arrest both of you right now.”

Pain stings through Raven’s palm where she slams it against the pod’s ancient metal shell. “She turned us in.”

Abby drops the call and crosses the distance she had put between herself and the cockpit. “How much longer?”

“Twenty minutes,” Raven says without hesitation.

“They’re going to be here in five.”

Both are silent. If they get caught, they get floated. There’s no hiding the evidence; there’s nothing inconspicuous about the Russian pod.

Abby is the first to speak. “No matter what happens, you launch that pod. Do you understand?” Her voice is steady and firm.

Raven doesn’t even have to think about it. “I’m not going without you.”

But Abby moves back into her personal space, the woman’s entire demeanor shifting from command to entreaty. “Only one of us needs to get to the ground, Raven. The second you find those kids, you radio back. Three hundred innocent people will die if you don’t.”

Raven tries to ignore the hands on her shoulders, but the quiver in Abby’s voice gets to her. “Abby...” She can’t get her own voice above a whisper. They both know what’s at stake. All Raven can do is acknowledge that it’s real. It’s final. It’s not part of the plan. “They’ll float you.”

In the nearly two weeks since their paths crossed, Raven has never seen Abby crack or crumble. Now there are tears welling in her eyes and a catch in her voice as she tries to speak around the palpable ache. “Then they’ll float me,” she manages.

It’s a strange instinct to pull anyone but Finn in for a hug, but Raven doesn’t think to stop herself. She doesn’t want Abby to see her cry. She doesn’t want Abby to be in this position, to work so hard, so desperately, to die _alone_. All Raven can do is wrap her arms around the woman and wish -

But wishing doesn’t make it so. She can feel the woman exhale, closes her own eyes against that letting go and opens them when Abby doesn’t let the moment last. She draws back and takes Raven’s grease-stained hands. Squeezes them and rubs her thumb over the scraped knuckles and doesn’t say goodbye.

“Tell Clarke I love her.”

* * *

It turns out there's no way this pod is going to be ready to drop in just five minutes. No way, especially when the second regulator turns out to be a cheap piece of shit. Nygel screwed them big-time. Twice the shit, twice the morphine, twice the trouble. Probably because Raven didn’t take the offered deal. Now fixing it is going to take twice as long.

"Fuck, Abby," Raven hisses, even though she's the only one that can hear. Her fingers dig against her scalp as she lets out an explosive breath. "They're gonna have to float us both."

She's been here before. She was told to run that time, too. This time, she changes direction.

Raven finds herself moving before she's even aware she made the decision. Discarding layers until she's back down to a threadbare tank, stripping her gloves, and mussing her hair further. She runs to catch up with Abby, slowing to a breathless jog when she sees the doctor crouched in the corridor.

"Abby," she says, forcing a grin. The reckless edge and her wildly racing heartbeat are genuine, at least. Abby's stunned silence as she rises to her feet keeps the woman from saying anything that could ruin the gamble.

There's no time to warn her of the plan. The stomp of boots is too close - so Raven grabs Abby by both lapels and yanks her off-balance, crashing their lips together.

Time slows. The stomping is replaced by blood thundering in her ears. And if the way she grips the back of Abby's neck seems a little desperate, that's because it _is_. If Nygel assumed it, anyone else could, too.

 _Please go along with it_ , Raven prays, then realizes Abby isn't resisting. She relaxes into the kiss, relieved at that much, and lets it end naturally. Both of them barely put together now, in front of Marcus Kane's security detail.

"So we'll finish... this when you're off work?" Raven asks quietly, playfully, but loud enough that the men can hear.

Abby's hand finds one of hers, twines their fingers together, and squeezes. She gets it. _She got it._ Good.

"Oh, you'll finish it," Abby responds, a low promise as she starts to pull away.

Raven watches as Abby straightens her coat and draws a thumb across her lips, facing Kane with both of them in disarray. "Yes, Councillor?"

Kane's gaze shifts from Abby to Raven, then back again. His men are careful not to look at _anything_. Kane's jaw clenches.

"What's the pressure regulator for, Abby?"

Raven's hand flies to her mouth when she chokes back a noise, but she saves it with a laugh. _Goddamn, Nygel._ With the betrayal and the save.

Abby looks over her shoulder with a pointedly raised eyebrow. "He's all yours," Raven laughs, gesturing helplessly.

She winks at Abby then turns to go, waving casually even though her heart is pounding its way out of her chest. That should buy them all the time they need. And if not, it’s at least a proper goodbye.


End file.
